Part 247

Se*ragl"io (?), n. [It. serraglio, originally, an inclosure of palisades, afterwards also, a palace, seraglio (by confusion with Per. serïa a palace, an entirely different word), fr. serrare to shut, fr. LL. serra a bar for fastening doors, L. sera. See Serry, Series.] 1. An inclosure; a place of separation. [Obs.]

I went to the Ghetto, where the Jews dwell as in a suburb, by themselves. I passed by the piazza Judea, where their seraglio begins.

Evelyn.

2. The palace of the Grand Seignior, or Turkish sultan, at Constantinople, inhabited by the sultan himself, and all the officers and dependents of his court. In it are also kept the females of the harem.

3. A harem; a place for keeping wives or concubines; sometimes, loosely, a place of licentious pleasure; a house of debauchery.

||Se*ra"i (?), n. [Per. serï, or sarï, a palace, a king's court, a ||seraglio, an inn. Cf. Caravansary.] A palace; a seraglio; also, in ||the East, a place for the accommodation of travelers; a caravansary, ||or rest house.

Ser`al*bu"men (?), n. (Physiol. CHem.) Serum albumin.

||Se*rang" (?), n. [Per. sarhang a commander.] The boatswain of a ||Lascar or East Ondian crew.

||Se*ra"pe (?), n. [Sp. Amer. sarape.] A blanket or shawl worn as an ||outer garment by the Spanish Americans, as in Mexico.

Ser"aph (?), n.; pl. E. Seraphs (#), Heb. Seraphim (#). [Heb. serphim, pl.] One of an order of celestial beings, each having three pairs of wings. In ecclesiastical art and in poetry, a seraph is represented as one of a class of angels. Isa. vi. 2.

As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As the rapt seraph that adores and burns.

Pope.

Seraph moth (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of geometrid moths of the genus Lobophora, having the hind wings deeply bilobed, so that they seem to have six wings.

{ Se*raph"ic (?), Se*raph"ic*al (?), } a. [Cf. F. séraphique.] Of or pertaining to a seraph; becoming, or suitable to, a seraph; angelic; sublime; pure; refined. "Seraphic arms and trophies." Milton. "Seraphical fervor." Jer. Taylor. -- Se*raph"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Se*raph"ic*al*ness, n.

Se*raph"i*cism (?), n. The character, quality, or state of a seraph; seraphicalness. [R.] Cudworth.

Ser"a*phim (?), n. The Hebrew plural of Seraph. Cf. Cherubim.

The double plural form seraphims is sometimes used, as in the King James version of the Bible, Isa. vi. 2 and 6.

<! p. 1314 !>

Ser`a*phi"na (?), n. [NL.] A seraphine.

Ser"a*phine (?), n. [From Seraph.] (Mus.) A wind instrument whose sounding parts are reeds, consisting of a thin tongue of brass playing freely through a slot in a plate. It has a case, like a piano, and is played by means of a similar keybord, the bellows being worked by the foot. The melodeon is a portable variety of this instrument.

||Se*ra"pis (?), n. [L., fr. Gr. &?;&?;&?;, &?;&?;&?;.] (Myth.) An ||Egyptian deity, at first a symbol of the Nile, and so of fertility; ||later, one of the divinities of the lower world. His worship was ||introduced into Greece and Rome.

Se*ras"kier (?), n. [Turk., fr. Per. ser head, chief + Ar. 'asker an army.] A general or commander of land forces in the Turkish empire; especially, the commander-in-chief of minister of war.

Se*ras"kier*ate (?), n. The office or authority of a seraskier.

Ser*bo"ni*an (?), a. Relating to the lake of Serbonis in Egypt, which by reason of the sand blowing into it had a deceptive appearance of being solid land, but was a bog.

A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog . . . Where armies whole have sunk.

Milton.

Sere (?), a. Dry; withered. Same as Sear.

But with its sound it shook the sails That were so thin and sere.